Section A- Lifestyle Magazines

The magazine i am looking at is 'Easy Living' and i can tell through different conventions that this fits the 'Lifestyle' genre of magazines. One of these conventions is the mix of content used in the magazine. We have topics like food and cooking, fashion, beauty tips and marriage advice, and a story from an aspirational female figure. This is evidenced in the magazines front cover, cover lines, that reveal subject matter of inside stories some examples are; 23 pages of deliciously simple recipes ... ; 'Easy elegant summer dressing' ; 'Subtle, glowing make-up' ; 'The marriage crime you didn't even know you're committing'. But also on the contents page it has huge titles separating the contents that label these exacts subjects.
It also fits this genre due to its use of direct address, to speak, and talk to the reader like they are having a one on one conversation, it is assuming the position of an advisor. This can be seen again in the cover lines with lines like 'What your friends really think of you' ; 'Skin you'll be raring to bare'.

In this specific magazine cover there seems to be a balance by value this is caused by images on one side being darker, and the other, lighter. This is done here by one side of predominately black text, and the other of, you guessed it, white. This will flatten it out and give it a Symmetrical form of balance that is more formal than a cover that has scattered text and images, giving off a more sophisticated vibe.
The type of font used here is a sans serif font, this shows that this magazine is quite an informal one opposed to a serif font that will portray a more sophisticated and posh lifestyle as apposed to a big chatty ''middle class" form of magazine. Even though it seems unsophisticated i believe it is still aimed at a more intelligent and classier sort of person that a magazine like FHM or Nuts.
Colour isn't just for making something look pretty, it can convey feelings and emotions throughout the reader. The title for easy living has the colour pink on it, this is said to convey Harmony, giving the magazine a very peaceful vibe. The main image model is wearing a white dress, this is said to accompany with the feelings of perfection, purity and innocence. Both of these are giving the vibe that this is a elegant, quite and simple magazine for a angelic like female audience.
The magazine uses many different styles of language techniques to reel in the reader and excite them just from the front cover. Some examples are the use of Imperatives, giving orders or making requests
e.g 'Skin you'll be raring to bare'. This is giving the reader some form of request or order for what they should do. 'Subtle, glowing make-up', this is a declarative type as it is making a statement about this certain make-up. This is clearly stating about this make-up giving them a strong little sentence for them to read easy grabbing the information and catching their eye.

Stereotyping doesn't just apply to sexualisation of people, but just to be sure in this issue she is in no way sexualised. I can tell through many different sections of this magazine that it is telling me something about the readers of this magazine. I can see through the main image this is a magazine aimed at white women. The race i can determine solely via the model on the front being white, and throughout the contents have images of white women, but there is no real stereotype for any race. In one of the cover lines it tells me of a story within, "KYLIE MINOUGE 40 and fabulous", using my detective skills i can tell that this magazine is aimed at 40 year old white women. Now finally i need to work out what sort of class this magazine is aimed at. I can see this through the typography and the content that this magazine is aimed at i high middle class set of women, not extremely chatty like something such as OK. Now this magazine is aimed at Upper middle class, 40 something white women. Now from the cover lines of this magazine, we are lead to believe that these women all love getting beauty tips with latest make-up, hairstyles and beautiful skin, they love fashion and adore new clothing and styles 24/7 with elegant summer dressing and chic clothes and they want to learn loads of cooking techniques and food skills. This magazine is labelling and stereotyping these women as people who constantly think about the latest fashion choices, heaps of make up and beauty tips, and cooking delicious food. This is driving the reader to this negative portrayal of this group of women, and even pushing a person to be a glamourous women, looking good, up with the fashion, and a world class cook, possibly for her 'man'

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Essay Question Easter Homework

Within this magazine front cover there is a clear feel of the language being used, this language is not extremely posh and sophisticated, but yet also not very chatty and informal, the language used is like you are having a conversation with a friend, it is very personal, talking and showing you things you wouldn’t get normally in maybe a newspaper or a political review, it of course is somewhat chatty as it is there to reel you in to this magazine that holds stories that you are to get interested in, this is all used in the style of the language and the wording the magazine chooses. Another form of convention is that of a direct mode of address, this can come from the text on the cover or the celebrity that us featured there. With the celebrity he or she is nearly always looking directly at the camera taking the picture so that when it is printed it gives the impression that they are looking at you, from wherever you are, yeah it does sound weird. But instead of being a creepy stare it is used to give that friendly aspect that it is all about you, the magazine is there to talk to you and it is yours to have, these stories are for your entertainment, and this helps with getting the customers and readers to easily come in and aspire and get stuck in to the magazine. The celebrities are looking and are there to talk to you and share this information with you, and that is a very important convention for any magazine. The other mode of direct address is the one that came with the article about party dress codes, but it specifically says “YOUR PARTY DRESS CODE”. This is direct address as it includes the word YOUR in the sentence, this is talking to you the reader and audience, it is talking to you, and what is inside is for you as a person to help you, this helps to engage the reader in this magazine, the audiences will see it like, Hey that’s me they’re talking about! An awesome dress code for parties, for me! It is not a bad feeling and it helps to reel in and engage the reader in a friendly and chatty tone.

I believe that this magazine cover will convey to the audience that this magazine is one of informal nature, but not to chatty, with a sense of sophistication as it isn’t extremely chatty or extremely informal, the women on the front covers seem to be more nicely and appropriately attired than that of the women in such magazines as FHM, this gives it a more grown up sense, maybe for women in their 30’s and mid 40’s as that is the average age range for the stars on the front cover. The stories also are not those that would attract an audience of young women but more for middle aged women. The layout of this front over seems to me symmetrical as it seems very organised and even, it holds a big square logo of the magazine that is matched with a box of text, and an even amount of text for each side, it is balance very well, and this shows that this magazine is more planned out, ordered and sophisticated, rather than a jumble of text and pictures possibly like a young teen magazine. The font on this cover are sans serif, this shows a more modern and informality to it that isn’t incredibly posh, showy or sophisticated, bar one word ‘party’, I believe this is done to show that it is not a teenagers house party, but maybe a dinner party, or something more along those lines. The language in it does not appear to be extremely anything, not to chatty, not to funny and comedic, just regular everyday language, I would still have to come back to the middle aged people as it isn’t youthful language that is really just average talkative language.

In this magazine to me there is no real problem with the representations on the cover of this magazine, Gwyneth Paltrow isn’t represented badly in any way, she isn’t sexualised and is very well dressed

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Album Cover Analysis 2

Album Cover Research

Representation Homework 20/3/14

This is my chosen magazine front cover, it is for the magazine PRIDE.

From this magazine i can tell that this is mainly aimed at a more middle class, working type of audience, this is highlighted in the magazines use of typography, the fonts used on PRIDE are sans serif, sans serif font are used for a more chatty, laid back and informal audience, and that is the style in which the cover lines and stories are, rather than a flashy upper class magazine with relevant stories and not about getting tribal prints.

I can suss out that this magazine is more aimed at a female audience, this is because of many things. One of those is the clear aspirational female figure on the front of the magazine, it gives the readers someone to look up, and i as a man don't what to be Kellis. Also the use of colours, light pinks and reds, with some burgundy come across as a quite feminine colour range, compared to blacks and blues for the men. Finally we have the many cover lines that show the stories within, and most of these stories are those of a female interest. For example 'The black girl who turned white' ; 'Get that flat stomach for summer in 5 easy steps", something more aimed at women and not men.

On this magazines front cover i can deduce that mainly aimed at black people, starting off we have an aspirational black women on the front, this could mean it is for a black audience. Also a lot of the cover lines feature stories that are about black people, for example Alexandra Burke- A black singer, Wesley snipes - A famous black actor and Macy Gray - Another black singer. Also a story entitled the black girl who turned white. Also i think the title PRIDE could be linked to a PRIDE in the black culture and being a black person in to todays society.

I think the sexuality in this magazine will be for a mostly heterosexual audience, this is because it features stories about famous black men and women, there is no clear evidence of a homosexual styling to it, but the idea of PRIDE may be excelled as it is the pride for Black homosexual Women in todays society, and a very unique magazine for them.

I believe this magazine is aimed at women around 25-30, this is because the women featured on the magazine are not as young as other possible stars in the black culture, for example Wesley Snipes is now 51, not a person a 18 year old might look up to, there are also stories about aspirational women that meet this age range, and would most likely be appealing to women of that age.